360° Coverage: True Blood Episode Recap: "Who Are You, Really?"

True Blood Episode Recap: "Who Are You, Really?"

Welcome back, fangbangers! Season 6 of True Blood has certainly taken a dark turn, huh? (And that's saying something about a show in which most of the protagonists never see daylight.) Luna is dead. Eric and Pam are in a fight. The smarmy governor of Louisiana has declared war on vampires. Tara's been shot. Jason ran his truck off the road. And Bill, well... we still don't know exactly what happened to him.
I'm going to start the season with a bold statement: I wish Bill had just died. I think Stephen Moyer has done a fine job portraying Confederate soldierBill Compton, but his genteel, fair-minded manner has long grown tiresome since, well, Sookie dumped him. On the other hand, Anna Paquin's quasi-romantic chemistry with Alexander Skarsgard's Eric and her relationships with her dim-witted brother (Ryan Kwanten) and her vampire best friend Tara (Rutina Wesley) have proven to be far richer, narratively speaking. On a show with too many characters to follow/care about already, Bill has seemed, of late, extraneous. I defy you to name one interesting thing that Bill did last season -- besides have sex with Salome. His death would have galvanized the cast, particularly Sookie and Jessica. I suppose one could argue that the writers agreed with me and, as a result, gave him a real doozy of an acting gig this year.
But who or what are we dealing with? Is this Bill, who has been occupied by the spirit of an evil vampire deity? Is this the reincarnation of Lilith? Is it both? (Billith, as the cast has taken to calling him.) As they used to say on the late, great Pushing Daisies, the facts are these: In last season's finale, Bill got a little greedy at the blood-of-the-vampire-deity buffet and appeared to die. He was then resurrected, covered in blood, from a puddle previous reserved for Lilith's dramatic entrances. And he had a bit of a temper.
Sookie, for one, seems to think that Bill is dead and that his body is merely playing host to some nasty piece of work. After all, she did stake him — to no avail, of course, but still. "I am no monster. I do not wish any of you harm," Bill tells his former friends after the non-staking. "But if you force me to defend myself again, you will be sorry." He sure sounds like Bill. But he's got some new tricks up his henley sleeve too. He's now able to fly like a "naked, evil Superman," as Jason hilariously dubbed him, make the ground tremble with seismic rage and levitate objects at will.
OK, so is he Lilith? Nora, never one to beat around the bush, asks him this question directly, but his answer is kind of lame. "I am Bill Compton — though clearly, I am something more. I see that now. I see everything so differently now," he says, sounding like Neo-on-the-Bayou. Jessica believes that Bill is still inside there somewhere, and I think deep down we all know that she's right. After all, that last scene — in which the three graces of platelets (I think they were all Liliths?) assume a menacing triangulation around Bill and then converge upon him — seems to support the occupation theory.
Raise your hand if you've ever seen a movie about possession — The Exorcist, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, etc. If so, it's likely that you already know how all this nonsense is going to end. You see, as long as Bill holds on to the love he has in his heart — for Sookie, Jessica, his great-great-great-granddaughter, whatever -- he'll eventually be able to expel his evil occupier(s) once and for all. And then Boring Bill will be back to sedate us again in Season 7.
I hope I'm wrong. I have great respect for the writers of True Blood, and they have definitely surprised, delighted and shocked me over the years, so for now, I'll go sit in the grumpy chair and repeat my new mantra — "Warlow! Warlow! Warlow! Warlow!" — and try to come up with some creative ways to insert the term "Hogtits!" into casual conversation.
So what did you think of "Who Are You, Really?" (outro by Mikky Ekko, no relation)? Do you think Bill is dead and gone or just trapped in the prison that is his very crowded body?
Watch a clip from the episode below:

Advertisement

Luigi LugmayrLuigi is the founding Chief Editor of I4U News and brings over 15 years
experience in the technology field to the ever evolving and exciting
world of gadgets. He started I4U News back in 2000 and evolved it into
vibrant technology magazine.
Luigi can be contacted directly at ml@i4u.com. Luigi posts regularly on LuigiMe.com about his experience running I4U.